100 Movies That Make Me Love Film: 26. Wet Hot American Summer

26. Wet Hot American Summer

I have no clue why I put this movie on my netflix queue. I don’t remember where I heard of it, or what actor would have made me interested in. Perhaps someone told me I’d like it? I absolutely have no fucking clue.

I put the movie on with no clue what I’d see and I remember in the first 5 minutes thinking that I was in serious trouble. I realize now that’s part of the parody. The film is a parody of 80’s hard-R camp comedies (like Meatballs)

At the start of the film the humor is awful (much like many of those films), you get introduced to most of the characters, however the tables turn around the point where our main character Cooper yells “I want you inside me” to the girl he’s in love with. 

Once that happens the film becomes increasingly more bizarre and features brilliant moments like a chase scene between a motorcycle and a camper that ends at “dead end” (aka a single tuffle of hay in the road) and an awkward trading of clothes under the guise of a romantic moment.

The film has the bare minimum of plot, instead focusing on various sketches playing off of different teen flicks all very loosely tied together by multiple story lines. Specifically Cooper trying to get the girl of his dreams and another counslers quest to lose his virginity to the sluttiest girl at camp.

The day after I got this on netflix I purchased a copy online. When it arrive I brought it into my school and we watched it during our lunch one day. It started with just 3 of us, the next day we watched it agian and there were 6 of us. Eventually by that week’s end we rented out a room in Student Life and screened it for about 30 students. 

The fandom for this movie on my campus was intense. We quoted this film constantly, started tracking down anything these guys were in. This was the film that introduced me to the State since it was a little before my time.  Never has irreverent humor worked so well.